The Internet has given rise to a whole new world of commerce, commonly referred to as electronic commerce or simply e-commerce. The term “e-commerce” encompasses many distinct disciplines that directly support or play a role in the buying and selling of goods and services over electronic, computer-based, networked systems. For example, broadly speaking, e-commerce consists of the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services.
One particular distinction that can be made within the broader realm of e-commerce involves the distinction between what many refer to as online retail stores (sometimes referred to as “e-tailers”) and online marketplaces. An online retail store typically consists of one or more servers with which consumers will directly interact via the Internet to purchase goods and services. Generally, with online retail stores, the operating entity (i.e., the merchant or retailer) is ultimately the seller of the goods and/or services. In contrast, an online marketplace involves an electronic system that serves as an intermediary—a sort of virtual meeting place where buyers and sellers can meet to arrange for the exchange of goods and services. Accordingly, the operating entity of an online marketplace is typically not the seller of the goods and services offered via the marketplace. Instead, individual merchants or sellers will list their goods and services via the online marketplace, and the operating entity of the marketplace will typically charge a per-listing and/or per-transaction fee for providing the marketplace system with which sellers connect with buyers.
Recently, some online retailers have attempted to bolster their online retail stores by implementing marketplace-like features in conjunction with their traditional online retail stores and through which additional goods and/or services are offered to consumers. However, such an undertaking involves a host of problems and difficulties. For example, to implement a proprietary marketplace system, first, an online retailer will have to identify and then reach out and partner with various other merchants or sellers who have products or services that are complementary to those being offered via the online retailer's store. This will likely involve negotiating and agreeing on revenue sharing deals with each merchant or seller. In addition, the online retailer must build out the necessary supporting information technology infrastructure required to support and host the marketplace features. Among other requirements, the infrastructure will need to 1) enable merchants and sellers to upload inventory information to the online retailer's system, 2) enable consumer orders on the retail site for a merchant's or seller's goods to be passed on to the merchant or seller, and 3) enable payments to be accounted for and divided appropriately in view of each individual revenue sharing agreement. These and many other requirements make the prospects of implementing a proprietary marketplace system a costly and difficult endeavour.